Samikhsya Bureau
What transpired into a situation when there was a huge confusion over Ashwini Vaishnav’s nomination as a Rajya Sabha candidate might have been a minor slip in communication between the Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party but, curiosities over the person have spiraled out of the political boundaries. Now people can be heard discussing, “Who is he? Why has he become such a hotcake that has got dual selling points?”
What was that magnet in the man in discussion that the two parties, the BJD and BJP, discovered the virtue to be on their side.
Going by the records, Vaishnav, an IAS, had a stint in Cuttack as collector and in his subsequent deputation to Delhi he had remained as the private secretary to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after taking VRS. But, is that the reason, which pitchforked Vaishnav to such heights of discussion or there is anything else behind that makes him as an attraction in politics, which has brought two warring parties to one platform.
There are few puzzling questions as regards Vaishnav. And the answers are not far to find out. Had he any link with the mining mega operator B. Prabhakaran? The official website of the union government falling under the corporate ministry makes it easy to find out that the tracts are patchy. With his DIN being 07310095 , the needle points at three companies Vaishnav had remained as the director.
Was he one of the directors in Trivani Pellets Pvt. Ltd. having its office in Prabhakaran’s Joda office called Triveni Earth Movers Pvt. Ltd? With an outlay of over Rs.200 crore, the above company was intricately associated with mining operations.
Besides that, Vaishnav had remained as a director of Brahmani Pellets Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Triveni Pellets Pvt Ltd, headquartered at Bhubaneswar. Adler Industrial Pvt. Ltd. is a company, whose main office is in Delhi, also had Ashwini Vaishnab as its director and one Sunita Vaishnav is also one directors of the above company.
It must be still fresh in public memory that during the elections, the BJD had to bear the brunt of allegations from the BJP for the former’s connections with Triveni Earth Movers Pvt. Ltd. And today it is the same BJP, which weighs its moral equivalence for Ashwini Vaishnav. If reports are anything to go by, then Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had received telephone call from the Pprime Minister to support Vaishnav’s candidature for the Rajya Sabha.
Is it a clear case of role reversal by the BJP, which is common in today’s politics, and what can be the compelling reason behind BJP bending backwards to stand for Vaishnav, perhaps, can’t remain a mystery for long.
